Packaging machine



Oct. 23, 1928. 1,688,406

L. w. TIFFANY Y PACKAGING MACHINE Filed June 1924 5 SheetsSheet 1 INVENTOR fmw. 1 BY W ("alum ATTORNEY Oct. 23, 1928.

L. w. TIFFANY PACKAGING MACHINE Filed June 1924' 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 l Jig-J A 13- 17 Z M 1 b v M h" INVENTQR M w. 7

ATTORNEY L. W. TIFFANY PACKAGING MACHINE Oct. 23, 1928. 1,688,406

Filed June 4, 1924 x 3 ShQBtS-Sheet 3 1s 1 1 1a 16 18 Z 9 2 19- 1 1 17 ,11

, I I ig-4 r 16 38 15 1811 1815 1 17 1:; 19H 7 5 1 19 k r "11 fl'j- 7 lNVENTOR ATTORNEY c after.

STATES PATENT oi-Flcef LEVERETT W. TIFFANY, OF "WIHSTED, CONNECTiCUT.

PACKAGING MACHINE.

Application filed June 4, 1924. Serial No. 717,678.

This inventionrelates to a method of as sorting articles, as well as to a machine wher .y this method may be practiced.

l). e of the objects accomplished by this inwntion s that of being able to take a mass of promiscuouslv arranged individual arti-' cles and eiliciently dispose these articles with-- in rec sole or package in such amanner that they will ccupy far less space and the c lZiliZQ will be less l:able to be damaged than L ofore been. the case, aside from the in such dis iosition-thcy will, present a pleasing appearance and be capable of being readily removed from the receptacle bony. I

urther object isto be predicated to the on of a machine to accomplish the i, object which machine may maniiu ed by an unskilled attendant manneras to et'iiciently handle a great nun'iber of articles to be packaged.

Another object is that of providing an as sorting machine capable of use in connection with the sorting of articles of any desired charaeteiybut particularly adapted for use in the handling of pins; sothat the latter may be neatly and. compactly disposed within a receptacle Still another object is D apparatus of the typepspecified which will elhciently perform the purposes for whlch t is intended and which will also be economically and. readily manufactured and assem bled. v 2

Other objects of the invention wlll in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinaction combinations of ele- 14 in which: I 1 is a plan view of one form of an he present invention;

side iew thereof; is a sect onal side viewtaken along 3-3 of Fig. 1;

i on the lines 5 that of providing an the latter.

connection with the accompanying machine constructed under the Fig. 4 is an end View of the machine; V Fig. 5 is a trausve 'se sectional view taken 5 of Fig. 3;

F ig. 6 is a fragmentar plan of a detail of the operating mechanism; 7

7 is a-sectional view of one of the re-- ceiving trays; Y

l ig. 8 is a partly fragmentary sectional side View of a form which the dispensing or d livery end of the machine may take 9 is a sectional side view 1 taken through a package which has been filled by employin a mach ne of this type; and

Fig. 10 is a fragmentary plan view of a;

form-of construction which may be adopted in connection w1th.the runways.

In the illustrated embodiment, the invention has been shown as an assorting machine consisting of two units; each including a hopper, a runway, and a receiving tray.

Common to both of these units is a base 10 and side walls ll which latter have upper edges preferably inclined. and support. a

platform at their uppermost ends. T11isplatform includes the sidewalls 12 and cross bars 13, "and movably mounted upon the latter ina direction transverse of the ma-- ch ne is a carriage 14 having cross bars 15.

Hoppers 16 are secured to this carriage in;

any desirable, manner, as for example by means of shafts 17 extending through open incline forwardly and downwardly, or rearwardly and downwardly,"any desirable ex ped'ent may be resorted to, such as that of using sprin s 19 which have their inner ends attached to the carrf age, their outer ends being secured one to each of the hoppers at points preferably ad acent the outerends of springs extending in planes slightly to one sideof'the axis ofthe shafts 17 it w ll be appreciated that ifeither of the hoppers is t'lted rearwardly, it will be maintained in this position until it is deliberately swung forwardly and downwardly, in which latter position itwill again be retained against acc dental movement. a

advance of, the

Arranged it immediately i in forward or'discharging ends of the hoppers By having the bodies of these are runways, each including an inclined base portion 20, to which upstanoing rim or ribs 21 are attached, so that each runway is sub divided into a suitable number of individual chutes extending lengthwise thereof. In turn arranged in advance of the forward or discharge end of the chutes a second carriage 22, common to both units, and supported by this'latter carriage are a plurality of tays 23 corresponding innumber to the number of units included in the machine. Thesetrays, while of any desirable shape, are preferably in the nature of receptacles having their outermost side Walls higher than the innermost of the same, as has been indicated at 24;, and the base of each of these trays is provided with upwardly extending partition members :24. equal in number to the number ribs 21 forming a part of the unit with which the tray is associ: ted.

t is preferred that the hoppers be given amo'vcment transverse of the machine, and

it is likewise preferred that the trays be given a-movement longitudinal of the ma chine. W 1th this in mind a mechanism such as has been'illustrated may be employed.

This mechanism conveniently includes a retatable driving shaft 25 extending transversely of the machine body which shaft may be driven in any desirable manner as for ex ample b means of a crank 26. Secured to that one of the shaft which is opposite to '29, the opposite end oi the end with which the crank is associated is a gear 27, the teeth of which mesh with the teeth of a 4 corresponding gear 28, This gear is secured to one end of a shaft 30) The teeth of the gear 30 are engaged by'the tcethof a gear 31, which is mounted upon ashaft critending into the bodyof the machine and terminating at a point centrally thereof. At this end, the shaft carries a gear 33, servingto drive a gear 34 carried by shaft 35. Secured to the upper end of this shaft is an eccentric or crank arm 36,- which has its path of mover. nt in a plane between a pair of the cross bars 15 of and slot connection 3'7 Thus, due to the fact the first mentioned carriage, and thus it will beobvmus that upon the crank 36 belng turned the shaft 35 will be correspondingly turned to vibrate the carriage and hoppers carried thereby in a direction transverse of the machine body.

Likewise the trays-23 are moved. when the driving shaft is actuated, this movement being accomplished in the exampleherewith given by attaching one end of a pi man 36 to the outer face of the 2? and connect ing the opposite. end of this element with the secondary carriage being preferably effected by the use of a pin that the last named platform is mounted for movement in a direction longitudinal of the machine, it Wlll be appreciated that upon which carries a gear these 22, this latter attachment the driving shaft being operated the trays will be given a movement towards and away from the outer edge of the machine, and at theend of each stroke therewill occur a period of rest.

In operation, it will be understood thatan attendant will initially place the hoppers in a position at which they will tilt rearwardly and in such position will fill each of these receptacles with a predetermined amount'of articles to be asserted, as for example, pins,

During this operation the machine may or may not be functioning.

wardly, as has been previously described, care being taken, however, that a tray 18 in association with the unit which is being operated. Upon the'shaft 25 being rotated, it will be appreciated that the hopper will be given a vibratory movement transversely of Subsequently, each 7 of the hoppers is tilted forwardly and downthe machine, and this movement will tend to dispose the pins parallel to each other and with their bodies extending lengthwise of the machine. In this connection, it is of interest to note that it is preferred that the base 38 of the hopper be transversely curved as has best been shown in Figs. 4c and 5, as it has been found that by having this base portion of the shape specified the proper disposition of the articles is greatly facilitated. f1 continuance of the vibratory movement will obviously result in the articles being disrunway; will be appreciated that if in bridging the gap extantbetween the hopper and the runway anyof these articles become charged from the forward endsof the hope pass and in moving downwardly over the slightly disarranged, the provision of the plurality of chutes will serve to properly arrange the articles relative to the machine body and to one another.

' .'ll1ustl1e articles; will-passover the runway and be dischargedtherefrom into the trays, and if in such discharging operation the articles should again tend to become disarranged, this dnliculty w ll also be overcome incident first to the provision of the partitions 24: within each of the trays and secondly due to theffact that the trays are being moved in such a manner as to assure a proper rearranging of articles within the I shortest interval of time. From the fore- 7' goingit will be understood'that the assorted tions. Subsequently the tray may be re-.

turned to the secondary machine carriage observed that in the present instance each of the tray bodies has its side walls formed with grooves 39 adjacent the upper and inner edges thereof, and the partitions 24' are tapered upwardlyfrom points adjacent the bases of these grooves, and extend above the same azdistance substantially equal to the depth ofthereceptaclewithin which 40 and having theirv outermost edges lying adjacent the base thereof. If now, the tray is quickly inverted the articles disposed therein will be transferred. from the tray body to the receptacle, and in this transferring it will be found that thearticles will be maintained in their proper relative posiand' the entire operation may be repeated.

If desired thepartitions 24; may be dispensed with but in lieu thereof partition members may be provided (as in Fig 8) .by utilizing a series of plates t1 mounted upon a common shaft 42, which is secured to the carriage 22. Where a construction such as this is. utilized, the base 20 providing the runway may be slotted adjacent its lower end as at 43 so as to accommodate and permit all of the plates 41 to be swung upwardly and inwardly away from the-tray in order to al low the recepacle 40 to be associated with the latter.

. In any event, irrespective of the manner in which the construction of the machine is modified, each of the packages filled thereby will contain articles assorted in such a manner that a relativelylimited amount of space will serve to accommodate a mass of articles heretofore occupying a far greater amount of space. Aside from the foregoing, the packaged articles will present a neat appearance and in shipment it will be found that the packages will be far less'likely to be damaged than has heretofore been the case.

'lVhile the package illustratedin Fig. 9 is embodied in a copending application, it will be understood from the illustration herewith given that it is preferred thata corrugated member or members presenting ribs are util zed in such a manner that their ribbed faces are opposed and extend from the base and lid of the package. "Thus, the articles disposed within the bodyof the same tend to key into the spaces extant between these ribs, and as a consequence a displacement of these articles is prevented, aside from the factthat wherea bottom member of the type shown in Fig. 9 is employed, the package when once opened will permit of the ready Patent, is:

i dispensinglor removal of the articles there from in a I1'l tIlI18I'"QL1tl 1I16 ClTlI1 my copendin application previously referred .to. Finally referring to Fig. 10, it will. be

noted that if desired the fins or ribs 21 may be disposed upon the base portion 20. in'such amanner that they will be unequally spaced.

This may be resorted to in the'event that, it

is found that unequalquantities of articlesare moving through adjacent and individual chutes. It will found in practice that by thus changing the construction a substantially equal amount of articles will be de' livered through all ,chutesand thus an even. distribution of the same within the packages will be assured.

From the foregoing itwill be understood that the objects of this invention have been accomplished, and since certain changes may be made in the above construction and different embodiments of the invention could i o made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contamed in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shallbe interpreted as illustrative and'not in a limiting sense. a

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all ofthe generic and specific features of the invention herein described,-and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter,

of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

-Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters 1. A packaging machine, including a hopper adapted to receive a mass of promiscuously disposed articles, means for vibrating said hopper to arrange. the articles with their bodies substantially parallel to each other and to effect a discharge of said articles from said hopper, a tray adapted to receive said discharged articles, and means for vibrating said tray to rearrange the articles within the body. of the same, said tray and hopper beingvibrated in different directions.

2. A packaging machine, including va hopper adapted to receive a mass. of'promiscuously disposed articles, means for vibrating said hopper to arrange the articles with their bodies substantially parallel to each other and to effect a discharge of said articles from said hopper, a 'tray adapted; to receive said discharged articles, and means for vibrating said tray to-rearrange the articles within the body of the same, one of said elements being vibrated transversely of the machine body, the other of the same being hopper adapted to receive a mass of'promiscuously disposed articles, means for vibrating said hopper to arrange the articles with their bodies substantially parallel to each other and-to effect a discharge of said articles from said hopper, a tray adapted to receive said discharged articles, and means for vibrating said tray to rearrange the articles Within the body of the same, said hopper being vibrated transversely of the machine body, said tray being vibrated longitudinally thereof.

4. A packaging machine, including in combination, means for arranging a mass of promi'scuously disposed articles with their bodies substantially parallel to each other, and a tray adapted to contain said articles, said tray being formed with means adapted to accommodate a package, whereby a package maybe arranged in juxtaposition to said tray andthe latter may be 1 lanipulated to effect a transfer of said assorted articles therefrom to said package.

A packaging machine, including in combination, meansfor arranging a mass of promiscuously disposed articles with their bodies substantially parallel to each other, a tray adapted to' contain said articles, said tray being formed with means adapted to accommodate a package, whereby a package may be arranged in juxtaposition to said tray and the latter may be manipulated to effect a transfer of said assorted articles therefrom to said package, and means forming a part of said tray for preventing a dis transference.

6.!epackag1ng maehme, including in arrangement of said articles during said combination, a hopper, a transversely curved s convex base portion forming apart thereof, means for moving said hopper to assort artlcles disposed upon said base and means prosaid tray, and means for vibrating said" mounting members, said chutes remaining stationary during SLlCllVlbIillllOIL 8. A packaging machine, ancludmg a mounting member, a hopper disposed upon said mounting member, means providing fixed chutes extending downwardly from said hopper, a tray p0s1t1oned at the'lower ends of said chutes, a mounting member for c said tray, means for vibrating the hopper mounting" member transversely of the machine, and means for vibrating the tray mounting member longitudinally of the machine;

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

LEVERETT W. TIFFANY. 

